In general, the present invention relates to pelletizing siliceous materials. More especially it relates to forming soft pellets of siliceous materials useful in rubber applications.
When silica is pelletized with water, the resulting pellets are hard and do not disperse easily in use applications. When the same silica is pelletized with an organic liquid, the resulting pellets are soft and readily disperse in all applications but it is uneconomical to use organic liquids to pelletize silica. It would be preferable to find a way of producing silica pellets which are soft and easily dispersible without the use of an organic liquid.